Medical and Consumer Health

Web sites you can trust from the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section (CAPHIS) of the Medical Library Association. These general web sites for consumers and professionals are usually lists of links to other sites, although some contain original material. To find information on a particular disease, each site has either a search engine or a list of topics.

At this site you will find a "list of lists" to comprehensive resources in health-related subjects, published by Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa. There are pictures of diseases and conditions as well as links to other web resources.

This site offers a free gateway to consumer health and human services information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Spanish and English. Healthfinder links to carefully selected information and Web sites from over 1,500 health-related organizations. There is health news, consumer guides, and information on diseases, injuries, and prescription drugs.

On this site you will find health and safety information on household products. It discusses safety hazards and adverse effects. You can enter the name of a household product and the site provides explanations and health information related to automotive products, landscaping, pesticides, cleaning supplies, pet care products, materials relating to arts and crafts, personal care and home maintenance.

This is a consumer health information web site from Harvard’s Medical School. There is a medical dictionary, drug resource center, and information on diseases and conditions. There is information on healthy lifestyles, nutrition and fitness.

This site includes a directory of long-term care facilities and inspection report cards for a wide variety of health care facilities in Iowa. Visitors to this web site will find a variety of useful information to assist them in the selection of a long-term health care provider.

KidsHealth is the largest and most-visited site on the Web providing doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. There are sites for parents with practical parenting information, a kids site with homework help, and a teen site with answers, advice and straight talk.

This consumer health web site from the Mayo Clinic contains an extensive database on diseases and conditions, a Healthy Living Center, healthy lifestyle planners, and drug information. There is a symptom checker and a first aid guide.

MEDLINEplus provides up-to-date, quality healthcare information from the world's largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in English and Spanish. MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations. MedlinePlus also has extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest health news.

Based on the Merck Manual, this Merck & Co. publication explains disorders, who is likely to get them, their symptoms, how they're diagnosed, how they might be prevented, and how they can be treated. Information about prognosis is also provided.

PubMed provides access to over 14 million citations in MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE and other related databases, with links to participating online journals. MEDLINE contains bibliographic citations and author abstracts from more than 4,800 biomedical journals published in the United States and 70 other countries. The database contains dating back to the mid-1960's . Coverage is worldwide, but most records are from English-language sources or have English abstracts.